Automated deployment and servicing of distributed applications

ABSTRACT

Deployment and servicing tasks associated with multi-tier, distributed applications, application environments and data centers are automated so that a person does not have to manually perform these tasks. All of the information describing and defining the distributed service is modeled and stored in a re-useable service template that can be used to drive an automated system to programmatically deploy and manage the service over time. Deployment and servicing of a distributed application can be automated using re-useable models that capture hardware and workload definitions. The re-useable models in the form of service templates enable delta-based servicing of the application. The service can be deployed to one or more physical machines, one or more virtual machines or to a combination thereof. A default deployment plan can be customized with instance-specific customizations of service parameters.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of Ser. No. 14/105,192, filed on Dec.13, 2013, entitled “AUTOMATED DEPLOYMENT AND SERVICING OF DISTRIBUTEDAPPLICATIONS” which is a continuation of Ser. No. 12/712,222, filed onFeb. 25, 2010, entitled “AUTOMATED DEPLOYMENT AND SERVICING OFDISTRIBUTED APPLICATIONS”, the entirety of which is incorporated hereinby reference.

BACKGROUND

The word “distributed” in computer science originally referred tocomputer networks where individual computers were physically distributedwithin a geographical area. Current usage of the term, however, is muchbroader and can also refer to autonomous processes that run on the samephysical computer. While there is no single definition of a distributedsystem, a distributed system typically has several autonomouscomputational entities (computers or nodes) that communicate with eachother by message passing. A distributed application is a computerprogram that runs in a distributed system.

A distributed system may have a common goal, or each computer may haveits own user with individual needs. The purpose of the distributedsystem may be to coordinate the use of shared resources or to providecommunication services to the users. The system may include differentkinds of computers and network links, and the system may change duringthe execution of a distributed program. Often, each computer has alimited, incomplete view of the system, knowing only its own function.

Distributed systems are used when the application needs a communicationnetwork that connects several computers. Additionally, there are manycircumstances in which the use of a single computer would be possible inprinciple, but the use of a distributed system is beneficial because itis more cost-effective to obtain the desired level of performance byusing a number of less expensive computers instead of a single moreexpensive computer. A distributed system can be more reliable than amonolithic system because the function of the system does not depend ona single computer. Moreover, a distributed system may be easier toexpand than a system with only one processor.

Examples of distributed systems and applications of distributedcomputing include telecommunication networks such as telephone networksand cellular networks, computer networks such as the Internet, wirelesssensor networks and routing algorithms; network applications such as theworld wide web and peer-to-peer networks, multiplayer online games andvirtual reality communities, distributed databases and distributeddatabase management systems, network file systems and distributedinformation processing systems such as banking systems and airlinereservation systems; real-time process control such as aircraft controlsystems and industrial control systems, parallel computation, scientificcomputing, including cluster computing and grid computing, variousvolunteer computing projects, distributed rendering in computer graphicsand so on. Distributed systems include server data centers, Internetdata centers, web farms and so on. Distributed applications include anyapplications that run on distributed systems, as, for example, Internetservices and websites.

SUMMARY

Deployment aspects of a multi-tier application can be modeled in acoordinated fashion as a service template. Once the service template hasbeen defined, a user such as an Administrator can direct the automaticdeployment of the service into an environment using a customizableworkflow. After deployment, the service can be automatically kept up todate with changes based on a differencing operation performed on theoriginal service template (a first service template) and the revisedservice template (a second service template). The differencing operationcan determine a list of actions to be taken to make the deployed servicecomply with the revised service template. The list of actions determinedby the differencing operation can be automatically implemented by adeployment and/or servicing manager.

Re-useable models of distributed applications called system templatescan be created. Automated deployment of a distributed application can beperformed based on the re-useable models. Re-useable hardware/workloaddefinitions can be captured by the re-useable models and can be used forautomated creation of physical and virtual machines. A defaultorchestration for distributed application deployment can be extended byproviding instance-specific customizations for service parameters forthe application. Once deployed, automated servicing of a distributedapplication can be performed by determining the delta of a revised ornew version of a service template from the original service template sothat the actions that are needed to be taken on a deployed applicationto make it comply with the revised model are automatically identifiedand performed. Orchestration of delta-based servicing of distributedapplications can be extended or customized by creating a customizedservice plan or workflow.

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the DetailedDescription. This Summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tobe used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a system 100 for automated deploymentand servicing of a distributed application in accordance with aspects ofthe subject matter disclosed herein;

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of an example of a method 200 for automateddeployment and servicing of a distributed application in accordance withaspects of the subject matter disclosed herein as described with respectto FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a computingenvironment in which aspects of the subject matter disclosed herein maybe implemented; and

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an example of an integrated developmentenvironment in accordance with aspects of the subject matter disclosedherein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Overview

In an environment such as a datacenter, deploying a logical applicationtypically involves more than one machine. Typically a number of machinesconstitute a front end such as a web front end of an Internetapplication. The front end may communicate with another set of machinescomprising the middle tier of the application and both the front end andthe middle tier may communicate with a back end such as a database backend. The collection of machine tiers and the connectivity between thetiers are all parts of the distributed service. Today, distributedservices are typically managed by managing the individual machines ofthe distributed service. This process generally involves severaldifferent Administrators who coordinate through e-mail or meetings todetermine the overall requirements of the application. Once therequirements are identified, the majority of the configuration processis done manually, leading to errors and failures on initial deployment.A complete description of the whole distributed application typicallydoes not exist.

The subject matter disclosed herein describes methods, systems andcomputer program products to automate the deployment and management of agroup of machines that are logically related and perform some overallapplication function. Deployment and servicing tasks associated withmulti-tier, distributed applications, application environments and datacenters are automated so that a person or persons do not have tomanually perform these tasks. These tasks include but are not limitedto: handover, configuration, application of updates and patches,lifetime management including starting and stopping a service (incontrast to starting and stopping a machine) and other such tasks asknown in the art. By replacing complex, error prone and uncoordinatedmanual application deployment, instantiation and servicing tasks withautomated deployment, instantiation and servicing as described herein,reductions in number of errors, cost and the time needed to perform thetasks can be realized.

All of the information describing and defining the distributed serviceis modeled and stored in a re-useable service template that can be usedto drive an automated system to programmatically deploy and manage theservice over time. Deployment and servicing of a distributed applicationcan be automated using re-useable models that capture hardware andworkload definitions. The re-useable models in the form of servicetemplates enable delta-based servicing of the application. The servicecan be deployed to one or more physical machines, one or more virtualmachines or to a combination thereof. A default deployment can becustomized with instance-specific values for service parameters.

Automated Deployment and Servicing of Distributed Applications

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a system 100 for automated deploymentand servicing of distributed applications in accordance with aspects ofthe subject matter disclosed herein. All or portions of system 100 mayreside on one or more computers such as the computers described belowwith respect to FIG. 3. All or portions of system 100 may reside on oneor more software development computers such as the computers describedbelow with respect to FIG. 4. All or portions of system 100 may resideon one or more application management computers. The system 100 orportions thereof may comprise a portion of an integrated developmentenvironment such as the ones described below and illustrated in FIG. 4.Alternatively, system 100 or portions thereof may be provided as astand-alone system or as a plug-in or add-in. All or portions of system100 may reside on a distributed service management computer.

Portions of the automatically deployed and/or automatically servicedapplication can comprise one or more physical machines, one or morevirtual machines or any combination of physical and virtual machines. Avirtual machine (VM) is a software implementation of a computer thatexecutes programs like a physical machine. In data centervirtualization, an abstract layer is created between applications andthe underlying server, storage and network infrastructure. Virtualmachines can allow the underlying physical machine resources to beshared between different virtual machines. Virtualization can create onelogical entity from multiple physical entities or can create manylogical entities from one physical entity comprising computing, storage,network or application resources. Each virtual machine may run its ownoperating system. The software layer providing the virtualization iscalled a virtual machine monitor or hypervisor. A hypervisor can rundirectly on the hardware (VM) or on top of an operating system (hostedVM). In virtual machine environments, multiple operating systemenvironments can co-exist on the same computer, but maintain isolationfrom each other. A virtual machine can comprise a set of electronicfiles that operate as an additional distinct computer system within theconfines of another physical host computer system.

System 100 may include one or more computers such as computer 102. Theone or more computers may include one or more of: a processor (such asprocessor 142), a memory such as memory 144, and one or more modules forautomated deployment and servicing of distributed applications. Othercomponents well known in the arts may also be included but are not hereshown. It will be appreciated that the module(s) for automateddeployment and servicing of distributed applications can be loaded intomemory 144 to cause one or more processors such as processor 142 toperform the actions attributed to the module(s) for automated deploymentand servicing of distributed applications.

The modules for automated deployment and servicing of distributedapplications may include one or more deployment and/or servicing manager106. A deployed application can be an online service, a web-basedapplication, Internet application or any other application. Thedeployment and/or servicing manager 106 can facilitate the modeling ofan application to allow for automated deployment and servicing of theapplication. The modeled application can be a distributed applicationand can include multiple tiers such as, for example, a front tier, amiddle tier and a back end tier. The front tier may but does notnecessarily represent a user interface such as a web front end to anInternet application. The middle tier may but does not necessarilycomprise the processing portion of an application such as an Internetapplication and the back end tier may but does not necessarily representthe data or database portion acted upon by the application.

The modules for automated deployment and servicing of distributedapplications may operate to deploy a distributed application to one ormore physical machines or to one or more virtual machines or to acombination thereof. For example, in FIG. 1 deployment and/or servicingmanager 106 deploys a distributed application to a virtual machinecomprising a front tier 136 of the application, a virtual machinecomprising a middle tier 138 of the application and a physical machine140 on which a SQL database 130 (an example of a back end tier) resides.In FIG. 1, the virtual machine comprising the front tier 136 of theapplication and the virtual machine comprising the middle tier 138 ofthe application run on a physical machine host on which is running asoftware layer that provides the virtualization, referred to as thehypervisor 132, although it will be appreciated that the subject matterdescribed herein is not so limited. For example, the virtual machinecreated may comprise multiple physical machines.

The model of the application can be defined using a service template(e.g., service template 112). A database 104 may store a collection ofservice templates for one or more distributed applications. The servicetemplate can include a deployment plan, a customization of how to deploythe application. The service template can include one or more machinetier templates that together comprise a set of templates for adistributed application. Each machine tier template in the set candefine one particular tier of the application. For example, in FIG. 1the front end tier template is front end tier template 114, the mid tiertemplate is mid tier template 116 and the back end tier template is datatier template 118 and so on. Each machine tier template can include oneor more hardware templates (e.g., hardware template 120 for front endtier template 114) which defines the hardware characteristics of thetier and one or more workload templates which define the operatingsystem and application configuration of the tier.

The service template can include a workload template that defines theoperating system (e.g., operating system workload template 122) and aworkload template that defines the application configuration (e.g.,application workload template 124). Additionally, the service templatecan include information regarding the network connectivity between thetiers of the application, illustrated in FIG. 1 by the lines 126connecting front end tier template 114, mid tier template 116 and datatier template 118. The service template can also include informationsuch as how the “health” of the distributed application is reported.“Health” reporting reports the results of monitoring the state ofservices and applications, including issues that cause downtime or poorperformance, such as unavailable services, long response time, andsecurity breaches. Error conditions that can be reported includeexceptions that occurred, errors that occurred, security problem or riskoccurred, service unavailability, dependency problems and so on. Theservice template allows for more than one tier to be defined and allowsfor customization of operating systems and applications.

Once a service template has been defined, a new instance of the servicecan be deployed based on the service template. If desired, deployment ofthe service can be customized by going through a phase calledspecialization in which instance-specific aspects of the service can beconfigured such as by providing values of parameters that an applicationpackage can expose. Examples of instance-specific aspects of the servicecan include particular computer names that are to be used or identifyinga database connection string that a web tier will use. Once customized(specialized), the service can be deployed into the environment usingthe customized workflow. In accordance with some aspects of the subjectmatter disclosed here the customizable workflow can be based on WindowsWorkflow. This workflow is called a deployment plan and determines thesteps that will be used to deploy each tier, configure the operatingsystem, and install any applications. A default deployment plan isavailable which then may be extended by a user such as an Administratoror ISV (independent software vendor). Metadata in the service templatefor each tier can control the order in which tiers are deployed. Anexample of a customization is customizing the workflow to integrate witha custom storage solution, although it will be appreciated thatcustomization is not limited to storage implementations and many otheraspects of the workflow can be customized Physical artifacts andmetadata for the application can be deployed from library 134.

After a service has been deployed, a link to the service template thatthe service was deployed from can be maintained. When or if a servicetemplate is later updated to include, for example, a new version of anapplication, a user such as an Administrator can decide which servicesto move to the new version of the service template. When a service ismoved to a new version of a service template, deployment and/orservicing manager 106 can automatically determine the changes that havebeen made from the service as originally deployed and can create a listof actions that are to be applied to each tier in the service to makethe service match the new version of the service template. The changesrepresented on the list can then be applied using a customizableworkflow called a servicing plan, which is a workflow similar to thedeployment plan (service template). This workflow allows a user such asan Administrator to customize how machines are taken out of and put backinto service when updates are to be applied. A default servicing plancan be provided which can be extended and customized by a user such asthe Administrator or ISV.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a method 200 for automated deploymentand servicing of distributed applications in accordance with aspects ofthe subject matter disclosed herein. Method 200 or portions thereof maybe performed by system 100 or portions thereof as described above withrespect to FIG. 1. At 202 a model or a set of models can be created thatdescribe the overall distributed service. The model can be manifested asa machine template that can include constructs called profiles thatdefine the hardware and software portions of the distributed service.Profiles are units that supply portions of instructions for creatingindividual machines and can be used to build a machine tier template. Ahardware profile can include descriptions of hardware including but notlimited to disk drives, memory, DVD drives and other hardware elements.

Workload profiles describe the configuration of the operating system andapplications that are to be deployed on a distributed system. Forexample a workload profile can describe what kind of operating systemwill be deployed to a particular virtual machine, includingidentification of the operating system image disk to be used indeployment. A workload profile can also define the application workloadthat is to be deployed. For example a SQL application may be specified.At 204 the profiles can be combined into a machine tier template thatdescribes how to build an individual machine. A hardware profile and aworkload profile can be combined to create a machine tier template thatspecifies how a particular machine will be created. A machine tiertemplate describes how to create an individual machine and can be usedto create multiple machines having substantially identicalcharacteristics.

Multiple machine tier templates can be combined to create a servicetemplate that describes how to put together an overall service. Aservice template for an application typically includes a number ofdifferent machine tier templates. The network connectivity between thedifferent machines that are part of the service is also included in theservice template. Thus, the set of models or service template serve as ablueprint to describe how to create an instance of a service. Theservice template describes everything the service includes and describesthe logical grouping of the machines that comprise the service. Theservice template serves as the description for how the service isdeployed.

The service template can be used by an orchestration engine portion ofthe deployment and/or servicing manager to initiate and perform theautomated deployment of the service. The orchestration engine executes aworkflow comprising a set of steps that are used to put together eachindividual machine of the distributed service. Hence, a deploymentand/or servicing manager can receive a service template and based on theservice template the deployment and/or servicing manager can createmachines that are deployed according to the instructions contained inthe service template at 210. Alternatively, instance-specific values canoptionally (signified by hatched lines in FIG. 2) be specified in aprocess called specialization so that deployment of the service can becustomized at 208. Multiple activities are orchestrated in an overallflow that produces all of the machines that are needed for the service.

After the service has been created, because the model (template) fromwhich the service was created is known, a number of management tasks cantake place at 212. For example, if a machine deployed from the templatechanges over time so that it differs from the machine created by thetemplate, the deployment and/or servicing manager can enact thechange(s) by applying the delta determined by the differencingoperation. A configuration that provides load balancing among themachines can be provided. Lifetime management tasks such as starting orstopping a service (instead of starting or stopping a machine) can beperformed. A particular tier of service can be easily scaled out becauseanother machine can be created that has the same characteristics as anyother machine that was created from the service template. For example,suppose that when a service was deployed a single web server wassufficient to handle customer traffic. Over time, the application mayget more and more customers, so that more and more identical web serversare needed to handle the traffic. The web server portion of theapplication can be easily scaled out by creating additional web servershaving substantially identical characteristics to the original webserver using the appropriate template.

The distributed service can be serviced, based on the service template.For example, a new template for the service can be created. For example,the original description of the service (the service template) can becloned and a new version created by modifying some aspects of theoriginal service template. For example, the amount of RAM for aparticular machine tier may be changed by changing the amount of RAM onthat machine. Thus the new version of the service template may have somechanges from the original version of the template from which the servicewas created.

When the new template is complete, an instance of the deployed servicecan be specified along with the new service template. Because theoriginal version of the service template that the service was createdfrom is known and because the revised version of the service template isknown, a differencing operation can be performed to discover the changesbetween the two versions of the template. That is, the incrementalchanges needed to make the already deployed service comply with the newservice template can be determined using a differencing operation thatautomatically determines how to apply changes to the deployed service tomake it comply with the new version of the service template. From thelist of changes discovered, the changes to the particular machines inthe service instance that was created from the original version of thetemplate can be applied so that it complies with the new version of theservice template. These changes can be applied using a customizableworkflow called a servicing plan, which is a workflow similar to thedeployment plan. This workflow allows Administrator to customize howmachines are taken out of and put back into service when updates need tobe applied. A default servicing plan is available which then may beextended by the Administrator or ISVs.

Hence instead of managing at the level of the individual machine asknown in the field, it is possible to manage at a higher level ofabstraction, at the service level, rather than at the level of theindividual machine, whether managing deployment or managing servicing ormanaging the distributed application over time. For example, instead ofstarting or stopping an individual virtual machine, the distributedservice can be started or stopped. Moreover, fine-grained control of theaction is provided.

Example of a Suitable Computing Environment

In order to provide context for various aspects of the subject matterdisclosed herein, FIG. 3 and the following discussion are intended toprovide a brief general description of a suitable computing environment510 in which various embodiments may be implemented. While the subjectmatter disclosed herein is described in the general context ofcomputer-executable instructions, such as program modules, executed byone or more computers or other computing devices, those skilled in theart will recognize that portions of the subject matter disclosed hereincan also be implemented in combination with other program modules and/ora combination of hardware and software. Generally, program modulesinclude routines, programs, objects, physical artifacts, datastructures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particulardata types. Typically, the functionality of the program modules may becombined or distributed as desired in various embodiments. The computingenvironment 510 is only one example of a suitable operating environmentand is not intended to limit the scope of use or functionality of thesubject matter disclosed herein.

With reference to FIG. 3, a computing device for efficient resumption ofco-routines on a linear stack in the form of a computer 512 isdescribed. Computer 512 may include a processing unit 514, a systemmemory 516, and a system bus 518. The processing unit 514 can be any ofvarious available processors. Dual microprocessors and othermultiprocessor architectures also can be employed as the processing unit514. The system memory 516 may include volatile memory 520 andnonvolatile memory 522. Nonvolatile memory 522 can include read onlymemory (ROM), programmable ROM (PROM), electrically programmable ROM(EPROM) or flash memory. Volatile memory 520 may include random accessmemory (RAM) which may act as external cache memory. The system bus 518couples system physical artifacts including the system memory 516 to theprocessing unit 514. The system bus 518 can be any of several typesincluding a memory bus, memory controller, peripheral bus, external bus,or local bus and may use any variety of available bus architectures.

Computer 512 typically includes a variety of computer readable mediasuch as volatile and nonvolatile media, removable and non-removablemedia. Computer storage media may be implemented in any method ortechnology for storage of information such as computer readableinstructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Computerstorage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flashmemory or other memory technology, CDROM, digital versatile disks (DVD)or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape,magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any othernon-transitory medium which can be used to store the desired informationand which can be accessed by computer 512.

It will be appreciated that FIG. 3 describes software that can act as anintermediary between users and computer resources. This software mayinclude an operating system 528 which can be stored on disk storage 524,and which can control and allocate resources of the computer system 512.Disk storage 524 may be a hard disk drive connected to the system bus518 through a non-removable memory interface such as interface 526.System applications 530 take advantage of the management of resources byoperating system 528 through program modules 532 and program data 534stored either in system memory 516 or on disk storage 524. It will beappreciated that computers can be implemented with various operatingsystems or combinations of operating systems.

A user can enter commands or information into the computer 512 throughan input device(s) 536. Input devices 536 include but are not limited toa pointing device such as a mouse, trackball, stylus, touch pad,keyboard, microphone, and the like. These and other input devicesconnect to the processing unit 514 through the system bus 518 viainterface port(s) 538. An interface port(s) 538 may represent a serialport, parallel port, universal serial bus (USB) and the like. Outputdevices(s) 540 may use the same type of ports as do the input devices.Output adapter 542 is provided to illustrate that there are some outputdevices 540 like monitors, speakers and printers that require particularadapters. Output adapters 542 include but are not limited to video andsound cards that provide a connection between the output device 540 andthe system bus 518. Other devices and/or systems or devices such asremote computer(s) 544 may provide both input and output capabilities.

Computer 512 can operate in a networked environment using logicalconnections to one or more remote computers, such as a remotecomputer(s) 544. The remote computer 544 can be a personal computer, aserver, a router, a network PC, a peer device or other common networknode, and typically includes many or all of the elements described aboverelative to the computer 512, although only a memory storage device 546has been illustrated in FIG. 4. Remote computer(s) 544 can be logicallyconnected via communication connection 550. Network interface 548encompasses communication networks such as local area networks (LANs)and wide area networks (WANs) but may also include other networks.Communication connection(s) 550 refers to the hardware/software employedto connect the network interface 548 to the bus 518. Connection 550 maybe internal to or external to computer 512 and include internal andexternal technologies such as modems (telephone, cable, DSL andwireless) and ISDN adapters, Ethernet cards and so on.

It will be appreciated that the network connections shown are examplesonly and other means of establishing a communications link between thecomputers may be used. One of ordinary skill in the art can appreciatethat a computer 512 or other client device can be deployed as part of acomputer network. In this regard, the subject matter disclosed hereinman pertain to any computer system having any number of memory orstorage units, and any number of applications and processes occurringacross any number of storage units or volumes. Aspects of the subjectmatter disclosed herein may apply to an environment with servercomputers and client computers deployed in a network environment, havingremote or local storage. Aspects of the subject matter disclosed hereinmay also apply to a standalone computing device, having programminglanguage functionality, interpretation and execution capabilities.

FIG. 4 illustrates an integrated development environment (IDE) 600 andCommon Language Runtime Environment 602. An IDE 600 may allow a user(e.g., developer, programmer, designer, coder, etc.) to design, code,compile, test, run, edit, debug or build a program, set of programs, websites, web applications, and web services in a computer system. Softwareprograms can include source code (component 610), created in one or moresource code languages (e.g., Visual Basic, Visual J#, C++. C#, J#, JavaScript, APL, COBOL, Pascal, Eiffel, Haskell, ML, Oberon, Perl, Python,Scheme, Smalltalk and the like). The IDE 600 may provide a native codedevelopment environment or may provide a managed code development thatruns on a virtual machine or may provide a combination thereof. The IDE600 may provide a managed code development environment using the .NETframework. An intermediate language component 650 may be created fromthe source code component 610 and the native code component 611 using alanguage specific source compiler 620 and the native code component 611(e.g., machine executable instructions) is created from the intermediatelanguage component 650 using the intermediate language compiler 660(e.g. just-in-time (JIT) compiler), when the application is executed.That is, when an IL application is executed, it is compiled while beingexecuted into the appropriate machine language for the platform it isbeing executed on, thereby making code portable across severalplatforms. Alternatively, in other embodiments, programs may be compiledto native code machine language (not shown) appropriate for its intendedplatform.

A user can create and/or edit the source code component according toknown software programming techniques and the specific logical andsyntactical rules associated with a particular source language via auser interface 640 and a source code editor 651 in the IDE 600.Thereafter, the source code component 610 can be compiled via a sourcecompiler 620, whereby an intermediate language representation of theprogram may be created, such as assembly 630. The assembly 630 maycomprise the intermediate language component 650 and metadata 642.Application designs may be able to be validated before deployment.

The various techniques described herein may be implemented in connectionwith hardware or software or, where appropriate, with a combination ofboth. Thus, the methods and apparatus described herein, or certainaspects or portions thereof, may take the form of program code (i.e.,instructions) embodied in tangible media, such as floppy diskettes,CD-ROMs, hard drives, or any other machine-readable storage medium,wherein, when the program code is loaded into and executed by a machine,such as a computer, the machine becomes an apparatus for practicingaspects of the subject matter disclosed herein. In the case of programcode execution on programmable computers, the computing device willgenerally include a processor, a storage medium readable by theprocessor (including volatile and non-volatile memory and/or storageelements), at least one input device, and at least one output device.One or more programs that may utilize the creation and/or implementationof domain-specific programming models aspects, e.g., through the use ofa data processing API or the like, may be implemented in a high levelprocedural or object oriented programming language to communicate with acomputer system. However, the program(s) can be implemented in assemblyor machine language, if desired. In any case, the language may be acompiled or interpreted language, and combined with hardwareimplementations.

While the subject matter disclosed herein has been described inconnection with the figures, it is to be understood that modificationsmay be made to perform the same functions in different ways.

What is claimed:
 1. A method implemented in a programming environmentfor software developer or application management, the method comprising:using a service template to automate configuration of individualmachines that implement a distributed service, the service templatecomprising both a hardware profile that defines a hardware configurationof at least some of the individual machines and a workload profile thatdefines a configuration of a software application associated with thedistributed service, the service template further specifying a healthinformation format defining how one or more results of monitoring,during operation of the distributed service, states of one or moreservices or applications that are associated with the distributedservice, are to be reported; receiving health information in accordancewith the health information format; generating a revised servicetemplate in response to the received health information indicating aproblem with at least one or the one or more services or applicationsthat are associated with the distributed service; and automaticallyreconfiguring one or more of the individual machines based on therevised service template.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the receivedhealth information indicates that another service, on which thedistributed service relies, is unavailable to the distributed service.3. The method of claim 1, wherein the received health informationindicates that a response time for the distributed service is above athreshold.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the received healthinformation indicates that security of the distributed service has beenbreached.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the received healthinformation specifies one or more error conditions experienced by afirst one of the individual machines.
 6. The method of claim 5, whereinthe generating the revised service template comprises generating atleast one of: a revised hardware profile that defines a revised hardwareconfiguration of the first one of the individual machines to address atleast some of the one or more error conditions, or a revised workflowprofile that defines a revised configuration of the software applicationexecuting on the first one of the individual machines to address atleast some of the one or more error conditions.
 7. The method of claim1, wherein the automatically reconfiguration is performed based on adifferencing operation performed on the service template and the revisedservice template.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the differencingoperation performed on the service template and the revised servicetemplate generates a list of actions comprising a customizable serviceplan responsive to a health of the distributed service.
 9. The method ofclaim 1, wherein at least some of the individual machines are virtualmachines.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the hardware profile iscustomized based on the distributed service.
 11. The method of claim 1,wherein the software application whose configuration is defined by theworkload profile is an operating system of the individual machines. 12.A system comprising: a processor operably coupled to a memory, and oneor more program modules configured to cause the system to: use a servicetemplate comprising a hardware profile and a workload profile toautomate configuration of individual machines that implement adistributed service, the hardware profile defining a hardwareconfiguration of the individual machines and the workload profiledefining a configuration of a software application associated with thedistributed service, the service template further specifying how ahealth of the distributed service, as delineated by one or more resultsof monitoring, during operation of the distributed service, states ofone or more services or applications that are associated with thedistributed service, is reported; receiving health information inaccordance with the service template specification as to how the healthof the distributed service is reported; generating a revised servicetemplate in response to the received health information indicating aproblem with at least one of the one or more services or applicationsthat are associated with the distributed service; and automaticallyreconfiguration one or more of the individual machines based on therevised service template.
 13. The system of claim 12, wherein thereceived health information indicates that another service, on which thedistributed service relies, is unavailable to the distributed service.14. The system of claim 12, wherein the received health informationindicates that a response time for the distributed service is above athreshold.
 15. The system of claim 12, wherein the received healthinformation specifies one or more error conditions experienced by afirst one of the individual machines.
 16. The system of claim 15,wherein the generating the revised service template comprises generatingat least one of: a revised hardware profile that defines a revisedhardware configuration of the first one of the individual machines toaddress at least some of the one or more error conditions or a revisedworkflow profile that defines a revised configuration of the softwareapplication executing on the first one of the individual machines toaddress at least some of the one or more error conditions.
 17. Thesystem of claim 12, wherein the one or more programs modules are furtherconfigured to cause the system to: perform a differencing operation onthe service template and the revised service template, the performanceof the differencing operation generating a list of actions comprising acustomizable service plan responsive to the health of the distributedservice.
 18. A method comprising: operating individual machine thatimplement a distributed service, the individual machines having beenconfigured in accordance with a service template comprising both ahardware profile that defines a hardware configuration of the individualmachines and a workload profile that defines a configuration of asoftware application associated with the distributed service, theservice template further comprising a health information format defininghow one or more results of monitoring, during the operating of theindividual machines to implement of the distributed service, states ofone or more services or applications that are associated with thedistributed service, are to be reported, the one or more resultsdelineating a health of the distributed service; monitoring the healthof the distributed service; generating, based on the monitoring, ahealth report in accordance with the health information format of theservice template, the health report indicating a program with at leastone of the one or more services or applications that are associated withthe distributed service; and operating reconfigured ones of theindividual machines that were reconfigured in accordance with a revisedservice template that was generated in response to the health report.19. The method of claim 18, wherein the health report comprises anindication that another service, on which the distributed servicerelies, is unavailable to the distributed service.
 20. The method ofclaim 18, wherein the revised template comprises at least one of: arevised hardware profile that defines a revised hardware configurationof the reconfigured ones of the individual machines to address at leastsome of error conditions specified by the health report or revisedworkflow profile that defines a revised configuration of the softwareapplication executing on the reconfigured ones of the individualmachines to address at least some of the error conditions.